Over-Education in the UK Labour Market: A Short-Term Phenomenon?

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1. Introduction Back in the late 20th century United Kingdom faced the most rapid higher education growth which supplied a high number of skilled workers for the national labour market. Unfortunately, growing number of graduates made the economy suffer from the overqualified workforce. This abnormality caused the over-education of labour market since bigger number of population currently holds the graduate degree if compared to those who have high school degree (Coughlan, 2014). McGuinness (2006) described over-education as “the extent to which an individual possesses a level of education in excess of that which is required for their particular job”. However, Mertens (2003) analysed various analysis and supported the statement that over-education should be treated as short term phenomenon which is likely to restore in time. Likewise, Caroleo and Pastore (2013) added that this restoration is only likely if certain persistent and derogative problems do not occur. In other words, it means that over-education is short term phenomenon only when overeducated person keeps refining his/hers …show more content…

So we may expect this to be a short-term problem, yet, any effects that underemployment has on individuals should never be underestimated. SIOP member Aleksandra Luksyte even conducted a research to prove that underemployment for over-qualified graduates causes serious motivation loss. She recruited 215 working adults to analyse link between underemployment and qualification level and draw a conclusion that “Overqualified employees become cynical about the meaningfulness of their work because they feel they are coming to work every day and wasting their time and wasting their skills”. She also added that overqualified people often try to engage in additional activities to keep their over-qualified skills productively used

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